VB.NET

Unpack an HTML Email to Files

Demonstrates the Chilkat Email.UnpackHtml method, which unpacks an HTML email into an HTML file plus separate related files (images and style sheets). Links in the HTML are rewritten to reference the unpacked files. The arguments are the unpack directory, the HTML filename, and the subdirectory for the related parts. This example loads an HTML email and unpacks it.

Background: An HTML email keeps its images and style sheets inside the message (referenced by cid:), which a browser cannot open directly. Unpacking writes each part out as a real file and rewrites the references into ordinary paths, so the saved HTML displays correctly — useful for archiving a message as a browsable folder or previewing it outside a mail client. The UnpackUseRelPaths property controls whether the rewritten links use relative or absolute paths; for a single self-contained file, see CreateTempMht, and for web serving see AspUnpack.

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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Demonstrates the UnpackHtml method, which unpacks an HTML email into an HTML file plus
'  separate related files (images, style sheets).  Links in the HTML are rewritten to
'  reference the unpacked files.  Arguments: unpackDir, htmlFilename, partsSubdir.

Dim email As New Chilkat.Email

success = email.LoadEml("qa_data/eml/html_with_images.eml")
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


'  Unpack the HTML body and its related files to the filesystem.
success = email.UnpackHtml("qa_output/unpacked","message.html","parts")
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


Debug.WriteLine("Unpacked the HTML email to disk.")

'  Note: Paths such as "qa_data/..." and "qa_output/..." are relative local
'  filesystem paths, relative to the current working directory of the running application.